Garment hangers



y 1%? J. R. ROSEN 3,319,850

GARMENT HANGERS Filed Sept. 17, 1965 ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,319,850 GARMENT HANGERS Jack R. Rosen, LosAngeles, Calif. (2009 N. Parmalee, Compton, Calif. 90222) Filed Sept.17, 1965, Ser. No. 488,023 1 Claim. (Cl. 223--92) This invention relatesto new and improved garment hangers.

At the time of the present invention many changes are gradually takingplace in the garment industry. The cost of plastic materials, the easeof fabricating these materials at a nominal cost and the fact thatplastic materials can be formed in virtually any desired shape orconfiguration with facility has made it possible for garmentmanufacturers to place their Wares directly upon hangers, instead ofpackaging them as in the past. Garments located directly upon hangersare currently being supplied to various merchandising establishmentswhere they are directly merchandised upon these same hangers withouthandling. It is considered that this method of manufacture has manyadvantages which are unrelated to this invention.

Cost plays a very significant role in the use of hangers in this type ofmerchandising. Various stores and other establishments would normallyprefer that the garments received by them were mounted upon hangershaving hooks capable of being rotated because of a variety of reasonswhich are unimportant to the present invention. Unfortunately, priorhangers having rotating hooks are in general considered to be tooexpensive to be used in the preceding manners in garment fields. Suchhangers having rotating hooks are also considered to be too expensivefor them to be used in other related fields such as in returning drycleaned garments and the like. This can be illustrated by referring tothe fact that common dry cleaning establishments normally returngarments on twisted wire hangers instead of on more expensive wood,plastic or. other hangers having rotating hooks.

An object of the present invention is to provide new and improvedgarment hangers having rotating hooks. A related object of thisinvention is to provide hangers of this type employing parts which maybe easily and conveniently manufactured at a comparatively nominal costby present day injection molding techniques from plastic materials, andin employing parts which can be easily and conveniently assembled at avery nominal cost using unskilled labor. Other objects of the presentinvention are to provide garment hangers of the type herein indicatedwhich are capable of being utilized for virtually any purpose, and whichare capable of giving prolonged, satisfactory service in use.

These and various other objects of this invention together with manyadvantages of it will be more fully apparent from a detailedconsideration of the remainder of this specification, the appendedclaim, and the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a garment hanger of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the hook employed in this garmenthanger;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken at line 3-3 of FIG. 1 of thedrawing; and

FIG. 4 is a partial cross sectional view taken at line 4-4 of FIG. 3 ofthe drawing.

The accompanying drawing is primarily intended to clearly illustrate thenature of a presently preferred embodiment of form of a garment hangerof this invention. Those skilled in the garment hanger field willrealize that in accordance with routine engineering practice a number ofchanges may be made in the precise garment hanger illustrated withoutdeparting from the inventive concepts embodied within this hanger asdefined in the appended claim. They will further realize that variouschanges falling within the scope of routine industrial design may bemade in the precise garment hanger shown without departing from theessential features of this invention as defined by the claim.

As an aid to understanding this invention it can be stated inessentially summary form that it concerns garment hangers, each of whichincludes a hanger member having a body which is provided with acentrally located vertically extending bearing opening of a conicalshape and a hook member having a shank and a base, the base being formedso as to fit within the bearing so that the hook can be located with theshank extending from the bearing in such a manner that the hook iscapable of being rotated. This summary does not include various featuresof the present invention which are considered to be significant orimportant.

These various features are best explained or indicated by referring tothe accompanying drawing in which there is shown a hanger 10 having ahanger body member 12 shaped in any convenient conventional shape exceptin connection with a centrally located bearing portion 14 as hereinafterdescribed. Thus, this body member 12 may be provided with specializednotches 16 for attaching certain types of garments, and may includevarious other utilitarian and/or aesthetic and/or advertising features(not shown). Preferably the entire body member 12 is formed essentiallyas a fiat sheet-like area 18 having a top structural flange 20 as shownsince this type of configuration is considered to be most desirable fora combination of structural and aesthetic reasons.

The bearing portion 14 employed consists of a somewhat conical like partor enlargement 22 located so as to extend vertically along one side ofthe sheet-like area 18 in the central region of the hanger member 12.The bearing portion 14 includes a vertically extending conical bearinghole or opening 24 located within the enlargement 22. 'This opening 24has a small end 26 and a large end 28. The bearing portion 14- ispreferably formed as shown utilizing the method of molding shown in theTreiman US. Patent No. 2,460,438 so as to facilitate manufacture and soas to save material. Because of this method of manufacture the opening24 is not a continuous opening per se, but in effect is defined by aseries of ribs 46 and 48 which are faced by openings 50 and 52. Fingerson one of the mold halves enter through the openings, 50 and 52 todefine the inside conical surfaces of ribs 46 and 48. Further fingersenter through openings 54 and 56 to define the half conical surfaces 58and 60 which form the other half of conical bearing opening 24. Thiscomprises the bearing portion 14. Preferably, a cutout portion 30 of theenlargement 22 extends from the large end 28 nearly half way along thelength of this enlargement 22 for a purpose as hereinafter described.Preferably a small lip 32 is provided at the large end 28 of the bearingopening 24 so as to extend a small distance into the interior of thebearing opening 24.

The hanger member 12 is utilized together with a hook member 34 having ashank 36, one end of which is formed as a hook 38 of a conventionalgarment hanger type and the other end of which is attached to a base 40of a generally conical shape. In order to save weight so as to make thecost of the complete hanger 10 as low as possible this base in thehanger shown consists of two conical flanges 42 and 44 joined by anextension of the shank 36. Flanges 42 and 44 are of such diameter andspaced from each other such a distance that when flange 44 is just abovelip 32, flange 42 engages on both rib 48 and surface 60 to provide bothupward and radial constraint for hook member 34.

The complete hanger is constructed as indicated so that the hook member34 may be assembled in an operative position with respeect to the hangerbody member 12 by first being manipulated so as to pass the hook 38 fromthe cut out portion 30 up through the opening 24 and out through the end26. The particular conical shape of the bearing hole or opening 24facilitates this insertion of the hook 38. This insertion is carried outuntil such time as the shank 36 is generally within the end 26 and thebase 40 is substantially opposite or adjacent to the cut-out portion 30.

At this point the hanger 10 can be completely assembled by supplying amoderate amount of force to the base 40 so as to temporarily distend thelip 32 so that when the base 40 is in place it fits under the base 40.This is essentially a snap in type of operation. The parts may be formedout of any of many conveniently available materials such as polystyrenein order to achieve this action. In the assembled portion flange 44 islocated directly above the lip 32 in such a manner that this lip 32prevents the hook from being accidentally removed from the hanger body12.

It is to be noted the shank 36 is preferably dimensioned so as to beslightly smaller than but still so as to fit closely within the smallend 26 in order to provide stability against the hook member 34 wobblingwith respect to the hanger body 12. It is also noted that the flanges 42and 44 are preferably shaped so as to conform closely to the shape ofthe interior of the portions of the opening 24 where they are locatedafter final assembly in order to provide for stability as well as thenecessary turning or rotation action for the entire hook member 34.

Those skilled in the art and manufacture of garment hangers will realizethe garment hangers falling within the scope of this invention may beeasily and conveniently manufactured and assembled at a comparativelynominal cost, and that such hangers are very suitable for their intendedfunction. Because of the fact that variations may be made in the garmenthanger illustrated and described this invention is to be considered asbeing limited solely by the appended claim forming a part of thisdisclosure.

I claim:

A garment hanger which comprises:

a hanger member, said hanger member including a hanger body andcentrally located vertically extended conical bearing opening meansformed therein, said bearing opening means comprising wall surfaces onsaid hanger body and upper and lower arcuate hearing ribs, the upper endof said bearing opening means being smaller than the lower end of saidbearing opening means, said bearing opening means extendingsubstantially from the bottom to substantially the top of said hangerbody, openings formed on said wall surfaces on said hanger body oppositeeach of said arcuate bearing ribs, said upper and lower arcuate bearingribs being positioned closer together than the height of said conicalbearing opening means so as to leave exposed a portion of at least oneof said wall surfaces;

a hook member having a hook on one end thereof and a base attached tothe other end of said hook member, said base fitting within said bearingopening means and embraced by one of said bearing ribs and one of saidwall surfaces with said hook member extending out of the small end ofsaid bearing opening means above said hanger body, said shank fittingclosely within the upper most end of said bearing opening means, saidhook member having such curvature with respect to the positioning ofsaid upper and lower arcuate bearing ribs so that said hook can beinserted through said exposed portion of said wall surfaces and passedthrough said bearing opening means to position said base within saidbearing opening means, said base being of circular section andcomprising upper and lower spaced flanges, said lower flange being inretentive engagement with said lip on said hanger member and said upperflange being in engagement with one of said wall surfaces and with oneof said arcuate bearing ribs so as to permit rotation of said hookmember with respect to said hanger member;

said hanger member further including a lip on said hanger body, said lipbeing positioned adjacent the lower end of one of said wall surfaces andbeing engaged by said base on said hook member so as to prevent downwardmotion of said hook member with respect to said hanger member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,460,438 2/1949Treiman 223-92 2,895,657 7/1959 Laughton 223-92 FOREIGN PATENTS 739,20610/1955 Great Britain.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner. G. KRIZMANICH, Assistant Examiner.

